john_b

14 ms·

91.
by john_b 12y ago
An academic-style sabbatical would not work in the current software development ecosystem because, unlike tenured professors, top software developers cannot be trusted to stay with the same organization after the sabbatical. Universities ca
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by john_b 12y ago
To answer your first question: yes. However, the amount varies greatly by state and changes year to year. Many of the programs for which states receive federal money are temporary in nature. Others, like federal subsidies for state Medicaid
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by john_b 12y ago
I believe it is the former, as one of the core ideas of 1984 (arguably the core idea) is that when a tyrannical power has control over language, they have control over history, and when they have control over history they have control ove
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by john_b 12y ago
You are probably right about the marketability of "slow" as a movement, but in hacker circles these ideas need to be discussed honestly and directly. The analogy with house building is flawed. Home construction generally follows a
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by john_b 12y ago
Fundamentally life is just patterns of information and their associated support structures capable of reproducing and adapting to their environment. There really is no answer to the question of "why" life reproduces because life t
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by john_b 12y ago
> "you would rather limit damage and trust peoples' responsibility" True, but most American cultural pathologies are rooted in mistrust of others, a mistrust which is itself often rooted in one or more fears that derive
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by john_b 12y ago
Nothing in the OP's argument was quantitative. Both are qualitative arguments. The OP raises some good points that deserve serious thought, but I find his argument sketchy and hand-wavy. The crux of the argument is this: > "Ou
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by john_b 12y ago
Yes. We already have laws that protect a person's likeness by default. All that is necessary is to extend the concept to protecting personal information (of which a likeness is one example) by default. It probably won't happen unt
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by john_b 12y ago
> "Cantor Fitzgerald did have extensive contingency plans in place, including a requirement that all employees tell their work passwords to four nearby colleagues." This baffles my mind. Is this common practice in finance? Wh
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by john_b 12y ago
A very interesting equilibrium too. As law enforcement increases the risk premium of running a drug market, rational markets need to compensate for that increased risk by diversifying into more lucrative activities, which in this case means
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by john_b 12y ago
Space exploration is not for you . Your tax share of this mission, depending on where you live, is either zero or nearly zero. Asking for personal benefits from a space probe is silly. However, your children, and their children, and so on
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by john_b 12y ago
To pick one example, before the landing it was discovered that the gas jets emitted by the comet interact with the solar wind to produce a unique signal: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/11/12&
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by john_b 12y ago
It's interesting that you believe that missions like this must be justified by short term benefits. These missions are very fortunately not about short term benefits. One of the initial motivations for this mission was to learn more
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by john_b 12y ago
Anything even remotely new is usually not a candidate for these types of long duration missions. Part of it is institutional inertia, but also partly a desire to use a technology stack that will still be in use decades from now. Even for mi
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by john_b 12y ago
The same arguments presented by the article could be applied equally to the fate of farmers after the mechanization of farming. A mechanically inclined boy in a rural area is now more likely to grow up and become a tractor mechanic than a f
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by john_b 12y ago
> "Kids are inconvenient and expensive and people mistakenly feel they'll have a happier life without them, but in a certain sense it's an empty life." s/kids/startups/ to see how ridiculous this soun
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by john_b 12y ago
This same logic has been used throughout history by tyrants of all stripes, often when the election results were decided in advance. You DO have the right to bitch about things, whether you vote or not. You have a constitutionally protect
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by john_b 12y ago
No, for several reasons. The congressional election in my district is essentially a foregone conclusion and since our voting system is winner-take-all there is really no point in voting for the opposition. I also happen to think both candid
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by john_b 12y ago
Being in the top 15th percentile of income might not be as much of a consolation if you live in the second most expensive metro area in the U.S.
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by john_b 12y ago
There is nothing in your comment to support your claims. You claim an exception to a rule but provide no argument to support this exception. And then say that the largest revenue producing tax in the U.S. has the least impact on the populac
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by john_b 12y ago
> "The reason to have income tax is to have people who can afford it contribute to society. I can see how that is a good thing." This argument justifies all taxes that a person can afford, which makes the reasoning here obvio
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by john_b 12y ago
Even assuming that the lack of processing power on the TV is a correct theory, your comment misses the point here. The issue is not about the intent of the manufacturer. Noble intent or not, the story is about what is enabled by this devi
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by john_b 12y ago
The (unstated) objection that can be inferred from the article is that because the US has no firm protections here, it pushes the burden and costs of these programs onto employers, who are incentivized to minimize spending on these programs
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by john_b 12y ago
It's a democratic republic, to be specific. Republicanism is the form of the government (representation of the people), democratic elections are the mechanism of selecting those representatives. You could have, e.g. a technocratic,
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by john_b 12y ago
Can you cite anything to support this? I find it hard to believe that a court would completely ignore the basis on which consent was given. For example: "The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution require t
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by john_b 12y ago
It's only win-win if no heads roll, as the parent proposed.
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by john_b 12y ago
If you are like me and just want to see the raw data in a user-friendly and customizable way without a bunch of pointless graphics or text descriptions, there is also http://weatherspark.com/
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by john_b 12y ago
It's a nitpick, but consistency and fairness are independent qualities in legal interpretations. As the simplest example, consistently applying an unfair ruling or precedent does not result in fairness. Only by presuming that all previ
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by john_b 12y ago
"Public interest" in this context is not the same thing as "the interest of the public". The former is a fairly objective (though difficult to measure) thing which concerns itself with the welfare of the populace [1]. Th
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by john_b 12y ago
> "You can say what you want about too much debt, overpriced real estate, manufacturing, etc..., but they'll figure that out." If this logic were applied to an investment decision it would be considered foolish regardles

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